So you are going through and average speed camera zone......

[FurtiveFreddy]

Tyre Smoke said:

So on this basis ^^^^ at night, the active cameras will be the ones that are illuminated?? Pretty big giveaway if you ask me. So you remember which is which for daytime if you pass often.

No, the camera installations will all look identical from the road. They will all have wires coming out of them and all have their IR illuminators on at night.

There's a box of electronics in a cabinet at the base of each one which can be moved between cameras to make them active. So even if you know which two cameras are active one day, it could be a different pair the next day.

But the only people who know are the ones operating the system.

[RYH64E]

Baz Tench said:

Id find it far less stressful to just stick to 50mph than try to work all that out and get through the roadworks maybe 5 mins sooner.

It would have to be a long stretch of roadworks for the difference between a risky 60mph and a safe 50mph to make a difference of 5 minutes to the journey time, 25 miles if my arithmetic is correct.

[Baz Tench]

RYH64E said:

Baz Tench said:

Id find it far less stressful to just stick to 50mph than try to work all that out and get through the roadworks maybe 5 mins sooner.

It would have to be a long stretch of roadworks for the difference between a risky 60mph and a safe 50mph to make a difference of 5 minutes to the journey time, 25 miles if my arithmetic is correct.

Exactly.

There's just no point in trying to push your luck IMO. The gains are minimal.

[RoadRunner220]

J4CKO said:

, a section on the M60 near Bredbury had been seventy for years, it was dropped down to 50 and covered with average speed cameras

I use this section of the M60 on my way home from work, and the number of people I see clearly doing a lot more than 50 amazes me, they must make a fortune from the fines.

[Steve_F]

My folks live between cameras on the A9. My theory was it'd be fun blasting past people but the reality is every time I've been up there the whole queue is stuck doing 45 with no one overtaking no matter how clear.

[grayme]

Europa1 said:

grayme said:

These drivers slowing for the average cameras are probably the same type that slow for the three GATSOs on the A505 dual carriageway between Baldock and Royston, down to 60mph (or slower).

Glad it's not just me mystified by the mentality of those people! Driving home from work yesterday, I was tooling along in the inside lane at an indicated 70 heading towards the first camera between Baldock & Royston; needless to say, a powerfully built hair product enthusiast in a black Audi A4 came steaming up alongside in the outside lane, then drops back to 60 or less (but stays in the outside lane) as we get to the camera.

A few years ago we were heading towards Royston in the left lane just before the Wallington turn off approaching a car doing about 55ish. I wait for the car catching up in the right lane doing about 70 to pass.

He goes past and I pull out behind him (too close with hindsight), then have to yank on the anchors as he brakes (to less than 60) for the camera. I think that is the closest I've ever been to a collision, and it was due to a 'safety camera' and a 'hair product enthusiast'.

Cool story bro and all that.

Then I retold this to a relation giving my incredulity that people think it is 60 on a dual carriageway, I wasn't expecting the response, 'I know, it's 50 isn't it'.

So, why do people drive like they are morons? Probably because they are as thick as st.

[Zod]

Baz Tench said:

O/T, but that's the only time cruise control is of any use to me. It bores the crap out of me in any other situation.

Ditto. I never use it otherwise.

[StottyEvo]

They defiantly work, a friend of mine has just received 3 NIPs for 60, 61 and 70 through the average cams on the M1 J31, 40 & 41 respectively!

9 Points for a single trip up the motorway

[g3org3y]

Speedo indicated 45/55mph for the 40/50 zones respectively.

Shoukie said:

The frustrating thing to me is that most people's lane discipline is even worse in the average speed sections. You wouldn't just sit at 70mph in the right hand lane in normal conditions or spend 10 minutes overtaking another car, so why do they think it's ok to sit at 50mph in the right hand lane and never change lane?!

Especially an issue on the A13 in/out of London.

[Europa1]

grayme said:

Europa1 said:

grayme said:

These drivers slowing for the average cameras are probably the same type that slow for the three GATSOs on the A505 dual carriageway between Baldock and Royston, down to 60mph (or slower).

Glad it's not just me mystified by the mentality of those people! Driving home from work yesterday, I was tooling along in the inside lane at an indicated 70 heading towards the first camera between Baldock & Royston; needless to say, a powerfully built hair product enthusiast in a black Audi A4 came steaming up alongside in the outside lane, then drops back to 60 or less (but stays in the outside lane) as we get to the camera.

A few years ago we were heading towards Royston in the left lane just before the Wallington turn off approaching a car doing about 55ish. I wait for the car catching up in the right lane doing about 70 to pass.

He goes past and I pull out behind him (too close with hindsight), then have to yank on the anchors as he brakes (to less than 60) for the camera. I think that is the closest I've ever been to a collision, and it was due to a 'safety camera' and a 'hair product enthusiast'.

Cool story bro and all that.

Then I retold this to a relation giving my incredulity that people think it is 60 on a dual carriageway, I wasn't expecting the response, 'I know, it's 50 isn't it'.

So, why do people drive like they are morons? Probably because they are as thick as st.

The unexpected response you got caused me to have a Chandler Bing "Oh my God....OH MY GOD" type moment. With a feeling of deep melancholy, I am forced to agree with your assessment as to why people drive like morons.

[Pit Pony]

I've done a fair few miles down the M6 and M1 in the last year, and I set my cruise control at 50 on the GPS sat nav, but am then having to occassionally (as in everytime) slow down to 46, because some people use their speedometer and assume it's correct, but then there's people who are gently overtaking me. I assume they have their cruise set to 53 on the grounds that it won't trigger that low.

But on Sunday Morning, going south towards the M6 / M6 Toll Decision.

I've past a 15 reg Rolls Royce with a bloke that looked like that indian chap off dragons den reading a broadsheet in the back and what MUST be his Chauffeur poootling along at about 70 mph. I went past him a "little" more than that (as you do when you have Breakfast waiting in Cardiff).

4 or 5 miles further on I'm doing exactly 50 mph in the 50 road works and I estimate he went past at erm 65 to 70 ish. Now I'm not a professional driver, but if someone were paying me to drive him around, I'd be keeping to the speed limit, especially when you can actually see the cameras.

[Welshbeef]

JonRB said:

Welshbeef said:

I always select the slow lane

The lanes have different speed limits?

No they don't but if for whatever reason people do want to go faster then they can do so and logically they would want to overtake not undertake.

[jshell]

P I Staker said:

I find this, not unusual to be doing an indicated 75mph commuting to work up the A9 (Dual carriageway) and get passed by a van doing 80+.

Are we the fools?

Eh?

A9 Dual Carriageway sections are not covered by the Average Speed Cams so they can go as fast as they like!

[Blakewater]

A work colleague of mine was driving through a 50mph average speed camera section of the M62 roadworks where there were no roadworks or lane closures at the time. As she was sticking to 50mph people were charging past her so she assumed they knew it was possible to get away with it and she let her speed creep up. The result was an NIP through the post for averaging 62mph.

[KarlMac]

Judging by my speed awareness course (where 27 out of 30 were caught on m/way average cameras) I'd say its just stupidity. None of them understood the concept of 'average', or if they did they thought it was the average of the speeds they passed through each camera.

[Brilad]

OK, I know the current ones on the M60 (which I also use every day) are there to enforce speed through the current works (hey - even when the workforce isn't even there cos you can't be too careful can you !!?)

but...

what is to stop them sticking these up everywhere, and I mean everywhere, so that wherever you drive you are always having your average measured?

I know what will happen when the M60 ones are finished...mysterious sudden dips to 50 limit after random gantries when there is free-flowing traffic and all the other bks that is used to raise revenue...

currently I have a Mazda 3 MPS, and it is nippy but it is getting on in miles and I will want to change it next year. Shall I bother with something with a bit of poke (I am an affirmed hot hatch fan) or just not bother - get something that sips petrol and go everywhere at 50-60mph for the rest of my driving life.

sad.

[Blib]

They are set up and all ready to go on the North Circular in London between Hanger Lane and Bounds Green. All that's needed is for Boris to throw the switch.

I may be wrong. But, I've a feeling that average speed cameras are already being used on the A13 as a traffic calming measure.

[Pit Pony]

KarlMac said:

Judging by my speed awareness course (where 27 out of 30 were caught on m/way average cameras) I'd say its just stupidity. None of them understood the concept of 'average', or if they did they thought it was the average of the speeds they passed through each camera.

Maybe they thought it was the mode or median and not the mean ?

Maths teachers need to be struck off for not getting basic statistical understanding through to people before they leave school.

[skip_1]

JonRB said:

mat205125 said:

One thing I've always struggled with is where the average cameras take their readings from, without a marked line on the ground.

Any ideas?

SPECS doesn't measure your speed. It just measures that you passed it at a time. Then a precise distance down the road, another does the same. Speed is distance over time, and both the distance and time are known so average speed can be calculated.

If you look really carefully you can see the small single dash or stud on the road that is used as a marker. Also only the cameras that are chosen to be in use have them.

[CGJJ]

Dont you lot remember the dumbos in maths who couldn't work out averages?

They are the ones who speed through specs cameras.

They never learned what average actually means.

To some people it's a bit like the offside rule.